The hardware and software architectures of core service platforms for next-generation networks were analyzed to compute the minimum cost hardware configuration of a core service platform. This method gives a closed form expression for the optimized hardware cost configuration based on the service require-ments,the processing features of the computers running the core service platform software,and the proc-essing capabilities of the common object request broker architecture middleware. Three simulation scenar-ios were used to evaluate the model. The input includes the number of servers for the protocol mapping (PM),Parlay gateway (PG),application sever (AS),and communication handling (CH) functions. The simu-lation results show that the mean delay meets requirements. When the number of servers for PM,PG,AS,and CH functions were not properly selected,the mean delay was excessive. Simulation results show that the model is valid and can be used to optimize investments in core service platforms. The hardware and software architectures of core service platforms for next-generation networks were analyzed to compute the minimum cost hardware configuration of a core service platform. This method gives a closed form expression for the optimized hardware cost configuration based on the service require- the processing features of the computers running the core service platform software, and the proc-essing capabilities of the common object request broker architecture middleware. Three simulation scenar-ios were used to evaluate the model. The input includes the number of servers for the protocol mapping (PM), Parlay gateway (PG), application sever (AS), and communication handling (CH) functions. The simu-lation results show that the mean delay meets requirements. When the number of servers for PM, PG, AS, and CH functions were not properly selected, the mean delay was excessive. Simulation results show that the model is valid and can be used to optimize investments in core service platf orms.